Juventus – Napoli: Raspadori’s Late Volley Sends Napoli A Step Away From The Title (0-1)

After overcoming a determined Juventus in a tight match, Napoli just about secured their chances of winning the Serie A title. Juventus adopted two different systems in and out of possession and almost managed to dry out chances for Napoli’s main players, but ultimately the visitors held strong and hit on a rare counterattack inside the final, gripping minutes of the game.

Tactical analysis and match report by Giovanni Cesaroni.

On the back of an intense week, on and off the pitch, Juventus and Napoli faced each other at the Allianz Stadium in Turin. While Juventus advanced to the Europa League semi-final and saw their 15-points deduction in the league lifted, Napoli faced elimination from their Champions League quarter-final against AC Milan, thus making this match a challenging mental test for both sides, besides the long-standing rivalry and the large gap in Napoli’s favor at the top of the table.

On the pitch, Massimiliano Allegri reverted back to his favorite 3-5-1-1 formation with Federico Gatti, Daniele Rugani and Danilo the back three in front of Wojciech Szczęsny in goal. Manuel Locatelli, Matias Soulé, Adrien Rabiot formed the midfield with Juan Cuadrado on the right flank and Filip Kostić on the left. Finally, the academy product Fabio Miretti acted as the link with the center-forward, Arkadiusz Milik, winning a place in the starting lineup.

On the other side, Luciano Spalletti confirmed the usual 4-3-3 formation despite some absences: Alex Meret was the goalkeeper with Kim Min-Jae and Juan Jesus the two center-backs and Giovanni Di Lorenzo and Matías Olivera respectively left and right fullback. The midfield trio was formed by the . . .

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